In various work environments, equipment is needed for a variety of tasks especially where products are involved. Personnel in these environments need access to different equipment in order to perform their jobs. For example, a warehouse work environment may require a worker to keep track of inventory, especially the movement of products into and out of the warehouse. The worker may encounter pressures to be fast and efficient with the disposition of products in the warehouse. The worker may also use a variety of equipment and tools in an ordinary work day. The worker may use a computing device such as a hand-held computer or use a tracking device to register and monitor products in the warehouse. As one may see, the list of equipment that the worker may use in a warehouse environment is numerous. Unfortunately, the demands of moving products and equipment into and out of the warehouse are becoming greater. The worker has to be fast, efficient, and safe in carrying out the tasks that are required in dealing with the warehouse. The worker needs to be in an environment that provides him or her with quick access to the necessary equipment to perform the job function faster. The worker needs to have access to equipment that allows quick verification of job tasks, or allows quick access to data that pertains to the warehouse or products in the warehouse. Even with the above tasks, the worker has to perform the job in a safe manner and in a safe environment. This means that cables and wires connected to the equipment that the worker might use needs to be kept to a minimum. If the worker rides around in the warehouse, the cables and wires can present an acute problem if they get tangled up into items within the warehouse.
One can see the issue of an operator that has to move products around in the warehouse. First, the operator has to know what items are within the warehouse. If a new product comes in, the operator has to log the product and then find an appropriate place to store the product. Once the storage location is identified, the operator has to keep track of the location so that the product can easily be retrieved in the future. From this explanation, the tasks described above may require several persons to get the job done. Today, one person may log all new products that come into the warehouse. A second person may be charged with moving the product and storing it in a location. A third person may be responsible for tracking the location of all of the products in the warehouse. These complex set of tasks may happen numerous times in a day. The tasks do not happen quickly as each person has a defined tasks which must be done before the other person can perform their task.
A similar situation to the warehouse environment may occur in a distribution environment and a transportation and logistics environment. The movement of equipment and products into and out of an environment must be done quickly and efficiently. A worker in these environment needs to be equipped to handled the demands of working fast, tracking materials, keeping updated records, and working with less personnel. In some other situations, the worker needs to operate unencumbered keeping hands and feet free.
With the identified disadvantages of working in today's environment, a solution is needed that allows a worker, operator, or other personnel to work faster, more efficiently, unencumbered, and safely. The solution needs to allow for easy equipment access, portable equipment operation, un-tethered movement, hands-free operation, and multitasking.